When the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlán in 1325, they built it on a large island on Lake Texcoco. Its eventual 200,000-plus inhabitants relied on canals, levees, dikes, floating gardens, aqueducts and bridges for defence, transportation, flood control, drinking water and food. After the Spaniards conquered the city in 1521, they drained the lake and built Mexico […]
Hurricanes
Posted inNews + Opinion
Hurricane Earl prefers Nova Scotia after all
There’s a good news/bad news thing happening with the Earl forecasts. Friday night at CBC, he he was a hurricane on track to cruise up the Bay of Fundy and hit New Brunswick. Saturday morning, he’s been downgraded to a tropical storm, but his projected track has moved smack dab over Nova Scotia. According to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Hurricane Earl may drop in on Halifax
No one can predict the paths of storms with 100 percent certainty, but the good people at the Canadian Hurricane Centre of Environment Canada, with all their computer models and hi-tech equipment, released this statement of concern earlier today: Hurricane Earl information statement issued by the canadian Hurricane centre of Environment Canada at 9.11 AM […]
Posted inLove the Way We Bitch/Love
Hurricane Who? What? Ahhhh…it’s nothing …..
What is happening with Environment Canada’s site and this years first hurricane related weather event? Why do I have to go to American sources in order to plan around a Sunday and Monday that Environment Canada categorizes as rain and a mix of sun and cloud? I find this to be very disturbing and given […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Getting back to business
Snack attack Monday, after the storm had cleared, Spring Garden Road was bustling with pedestrians out to catch a glimpse of the storm damage. Many of them also decided to stop for a post-Juan beverage. By Monday night, the power had come back on the south side of the street but most of the businesses […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Follow the leader
At around 2pm on Sunday afternoon I arrived at the Emergency Operations Centre over in Dartmouth. Basically I was there for the duration. I got home late Monday evening. What we did was get a feel for what was going on. We called the Emergency Measures Advisory Committee together, which consists of the deputy mayor […]
Posted inLifestyle
Getting ready in case of emergency
Hurricane Juan’s whirlwind visit to Halifax left the SuperCity stunned at the damage and struggling to clean up after one of the biggest messes in its recent history. It’s the kind of disaster that you’d think would leave emergency responders such as the police, fire department and ambulance services scrambling. They’re working overtime, to be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cat came back
On Monday morning, when things have finally calmed down, I decide to focus on the fence in the backyard that fell during the hurricane. We’re lucky the fence didn’t kill anyone, for it was broken before Sunday’s storm. Most things half-broken then broke completely. Including, it turns out, my relations with the dogs living on […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
When a tree falls
Considering the size and weight, the oak tree that fell on my neighbour’s house at the height of Hurricane Juan landed softly, settling on the roof and bending gutters, but causing little other destruction. My neighbour is a handy-man type of guy, and the gutters will be repaired and replaced in a short Saturday afternoon. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Down at the Khyber
Tuesday morning I was helping set up The Coast’s emergency office, and there were computer problems. We’d taken over the Khyber Digital Media Centre, lugging a few computers from our powerless north end office to join this electric oasis on Barrington Street, but the two systems clashed. While I maxed out my editor skills trying […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Motel hell
When the world wasn’t lit so well by giant tungsten candles and strobing halogen fireflies the neon sign of a motel would really stand out. You could be coming into town, late on the road, tired, grimey, hungry. There it would be, warming the night sky with the colours of fireworks, there would be the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Night in black
Juan is on everyone’s minds at my local watering hole Sunday afternoon. The bartender clearly isn’t concerned. “What does Halifax know about storms, anyway?” he guffaws through his Cape Breton accent. “The Khyber isn’t open tonight, is it?” asks a neighbour. “Of course it is,” I reply. “Tonight’s the Johnny Cash tribute. I’m performing.” Downtown, […]